The bird in the cage
by vercopa
Summary: Life isn't always fair.
1. Duty is never fair.

Neji knew his duty. His father had seen to that. Neji floated in calmness the simple emotions of regret and surety of purpose settling him.

He opens his lavender eyes and sees Lee and Tenten down the slope from him sparing. A slight smile cracks his face as he watches Tenten move from tonfa to sai to kunai and back in response to Lee's steady barrage from his nunchucks.

A quiet footfall behind him signals Gai sensei's arrival.

"You know, you could always go down there to them." Neji can imagine the thumbs up being given to go with the rustle of cloth above and behind him. "You might even enjoy yourself." Gai's silly grin can even be heard in his voice.

A slight pain flashes across Neji's forehead, his duty to the clan must be upheld... He stared down at the lithe form of Tenten as she dodged a flurry of blows from Lee and scored a touch to his ribs with her sai.

No... Some beautiful birds could be free. But he could never be. He sighs slowly and returns to his meditation.


	2. Visions with Kami

Ruddy brown and grey murk drift and sway over brilliant shafts of light.

 ** _Focus._**

 ** _Yes... Must focus..._**

Shimmering lights swirl into a small puddle of light in the grey haze. A woman dressed in drab brown robes knocks hastily on the small brown door. The door opens and a sleepy midnight haired woman stands in the doorway.

"Yes?" Hinata asks.

"I need your help, Hinata-sama... It's for my son, it's for Neji." The shaky voice of Tenten says from the robes.

Grey and red swirl drunkenly around the image, blotting it from sight.

 _A son?_

 ** _Focus._**

 _A son?!?_

 ** _Focus!_**

Light returns in a rose bud funnel, Hinata stands with her back against the door.

"Tenten-kun, please explain." She says with all signs of sleep gone from her.

Tenten lowers her hood and reveals a harried and disheveled hull of her former self "I didn't know who to turn to." She slumps against the wall, her baby bundled in her arms. "I'm so tired... after the war, i found out that i was pregnant, and..." she shudders "And your cousin had died. His father had died..." the baby twitched slightly in her arms. "They found out that I was pregnant with Neji's son. We've been on the run ever since."

"Who though?" Hinata implores "Who is after you?"

"I don't know..." Tenten shudders "I only know that whoever it was, they killed the family i was staying with... even the children."

Hinata wraps her arms under her breasts and stares sorrowfully from mother to baby. "What is it that you wish from me?"

"You are Hyuga. Ca... Can you talk to your father? Have Hiashi protect him... give him a life that I cannot." Tenten holds the baby close to her breast peering into swaddling at a silver eye, she kisses his forehead and coos to him softly willing him back to sleep. "I cannot teach him about the byakugan... I don't know who else to turn to."

 _Why? Why am I seeing this?_

 ** _Choose soon._**

 _Choose? Choose what?_

 ** _Life... or death._**


	3. The dream and the Rinnegan

**Authors note:**

This story has changed considerably since i first started writing it. It's no longer told through the eyes of Neji but it is a story about Neji. This is told from the POV of Kami, and Kami doesnt care one bit about chronological order. So, until the next authors note, the timeline could be completely different. I will throw in hints to try and orient you some, but trust me, the end will be worth it. Also, this story is being upgraded from K to M. My apologies but... I blame my girlfriend.

Sasuke lay in soft comfortable darkness. Sleep had eluded him for days on end and his body had finally demanded rest. The migraine over his rinnegan eye on the otherhand made sleep impossible. The echoing voice of his wife, Sakura floated to him

"Give it time, my love. The pain will pass."

He smirked at the memory of her worried expression. He closed his eyes and meditated in the cloud of silk and feather down. In the fog of weary concentration, finally his mind drifted to sleep.

Shadows passed over head as Sasuke chalk clacked symbols on the slate under his knees. He waved away a buzzing insect and stared down again at one of five chakra enhancing symbols he had drawn. He squiggled the correct sign for the master and connected the five symbols one to the next and so on, so that all five fed finally to the center symbol.

Clapping chalk dust from his hands he looked up into the roiling grey and red sky. Sasuke's rinnegan eye touching briefly on the familure silver of an old rival.

"Hn." he mutters

A voice rumbles from the ground and sky shaking loose chips of slate, sending them skittering **_You must only reach for those who choose._** Sasuke jerked around reaching for a sword that was not there. He shuddered violently.

Sasuke awakens suddenly. the phantom of his missing arm tingling hot in the toss of silken sheets... a voice... cold and hot, pain and pleasure... life and death rings out in his head.

 ** _THEY MUST CHOOSE!_**

He focuses on the migraine, the seeming source of the voice hand signs flutter into his sight ox, rat, monkey, dragon, dragon, ox, hare, boar... Too fast... Even for his eyes, its too fast. The symbol of triangles and wavy lines from his dream... Five people standing in a ring of chakra... ox, rat, monkey, dragon, dragon, ox, hare, boar, snake, ox, horse, tiger, dog, bird, bird... still too fast... The pain! A spear of fire lances through his rinnegan eye, he screams...

The door bursts open "SASUKE!" a familiar voice rings harsh in the . The pain crumbles inward, sucked into the void within his rinnegan eye... Sasuke's bonelessly limp body falls hard into the silk and feather down of his bed. Darkness... beautiful, precious darkness.


End file.
